Why reincarnate as a useless skeleton?

"Grrrraaa!"

*Slash!... Pack*.

The head of the last remaining zombie in the village was cut off and fell to the ground, and a dark green liquid began to pour out of the severed neck.

...

{You gained 35 xp}

...

{You leveled up}

...

{You gained 12 stat points}

...

After the battle was over, Marcus climbed down from the roof where he was and started killing the few remaining zombies. These guys no longer posed a threat to him. Most of them could no longer fight and the rest were distracted by eating the corpse of the larger worm.

Finally, Marcus approached the lesser worm that was in agony and plunged his sword into its head, ending its suffering.

...

{The user has defeated a [Necrophagous Worm] for the first time, 93 additional experience points will be awarded}

...

{You gained 934 xp}

...

{You leveled up}

...

{You gained 12 stat points}

...

Marcus couldn't believe that he spent over two weeks stuck in the village unable to progress, and today in just two hours he had gained over 1,400 exp, managing to level up to level 7 almost level 8!

This only made it more obvious how weak and useless he was. If it wasn't for the fact that he probably used all the good luck he had left from his previous life, he would be dead by now.

After having slain all the remaining enemies, Marcus decided to survey the battlefield to see what benefits he could reap. Currently, his equipment consisted of a few pieces of armor, the battle mace he got from the first skeleton he defeated, and a somewhat sharp sword he picked up from the ground after the battle.

But this equipment was of very poor quality and at the rate, things were going Marcus would need to change his weaponry if he wanted to have a better chance of survival.

After more than three hours of searching, Marcus only managed to find two more swords with their respective scabbards. But he decided to discard them because neither seemed to be sharp enough to cut anything.

Marcus was disappointed, he had hoped that with so many corpses of soldiers he could get better equipment. But all the pieces of armor and weapons had been destroyed by the worms.

Unable to find anything else that would be of use to him, Marcus opted to enter the only place he had not yet checked, the town hall.

When he entered, he noticed that both the entrance floor and the upper floors had been destroyed. It turned out that when the negrophage worms chose the building as their nest, in the process almost reducing the place to rubble, how it was still standing was a mystery.

Marcus carefully walked along the few wooden planks that remained around the edges and proceeded down into what was once the basement.

Originally the basement was a bit smaller, but the worms seemed to have "remodeled" it to suit their needs. In one of the walls was a huge circular hole nearly 2.5 meters (9ft) long, it was obviously where the worms had entered.

Marcus was inspecting the basement in search of any object that could be of use to him. But after several minutes, he couldn't find anything.

Finally, just as he was about to give up, he found a metal hatch under a pile of rubble in a corner of the basement. To his surprise, it was open.

Marcus pondered for a moment before deciding. On the one hand, he could venture down the tunnel made by the necrophagous worms or he could climb down the ladder from the hatch.

For a moment, Marcus remembered that major necrophagous worm and how terrifyingly powerful it was. Even if he only encountered one of the little guys, it was certain he couldn't beat them.

Half a second later, Marcus was climbing down the ladder...

****

The ladder was incredibly long. Marcus estimated that he had descended about 200 meters (656ft) until he finally reached the bottom. The further he went down the cave, the deeper he got.

'If I remember correctly... On Earth, the deepest depth that humans have ever gone was over 40,000 ft (12,000 m). But this place seems much deeper than that.'

Marcus found himself in a small square room in which there was only a thick steel door. Fully prepared he grabbed the door handle and slowly opened it.

It turned out that behind it was a long corridor.

Thanks to [Primal Sense] Marcus could tell that the corridor was no more than 50 meters(164 ft) long and the width of six people, as well as possessing a total of 21 doors, 10 on each side and one at the end.

Marcus began to walk down the corridor and also decided to check each of the doors. The doors appeared to be made of wood, each leading to a small single room.

The rooms were all the same, a single-sized bed, a medium-sized closet, and a chest at the foot of the bed. Surprisingly, most of the chests were full!

After going through all the rooms, Marcus got a total of 200 coins of different shapes and sizes, 13 swords in perfect condition, 2 triangular shields made of metal, a ring, several pieces of armor including 5 helmets, some pairs of gloves, and boots, chain mail and steel breastplates.

Seeing this, Marcus was more than satisfied and proceeded to equip himself with the best things he could find. With this, his defense went from 19 to 53 (although his agility was reduced to 5).

But the best thing he had found was the ring. At first, it didn't seem very useful, but when Marcus tried it on, his agility went from 10(-5) to 10(+5).

Marcus was very excited. He had finally gotten his first magic item. At first, he thought that, after miraculously surviving the incredible battle that took place a few hours before, he had used up all his luck, but after seeing the results of this "harvest" it seemed that he still had some left.

Once he finished checking all the rooms, Marcus wrapped all the weapons and armor in two sheets and then stored them in the [inventory].

The [inventory] only had nine storage spaces, and no matter how identical or similar the items were, they could not be stacked in the same storage space. But in the two weeks that Marcus was "living" in the village he took the opportunity to experiment with the capabilities of his ability.

He then discovered that if he kept similar objects in a bag, the [inventory] would take it as a single object. Technically he had found a bug in the skill.

Currently, Marcus' [inventory] contained a bag of armor, a bag of coins, another bag of weapons, a shield, a sword, and Willson. That meant he still had 3 more slots left.

When Marcus finished equipping himself and confirming that everything was in order, he proceeded to open the last door he had not yet checked.

This time Marcus was a bit calmer, he was wearing full armor, a sword at his waist, a shield on his right arm, and carried his trusty battle mace on the other.

*Creack*

When Marcus opened the door he found a huge square room. This room didn't have any particularly interesting features, other than the fact that it had a door on each of its walls.

But then, Marcus focused his attention on the figure sitting in the middle of the room.

It was a skeleton, this one was dressed in a somewhat worn tunic that had a huge hole in the back and torn cloth pants. He was also carrying some sort of rectangular leather bag slung over his right shoulder.

When the skeleton realized that Marcus was there, it stood up but did nothing else.

Marcus was fully alert, even though the robed skeleton didn't look like a threat, he didn't dare let his guard down. For some reason, his instincts told him that, except for the larger worm, this guy was the strongest monster he had ever encountered.

In that case, it would be best to avoid a confrontation, so he slowly made his way to the door on the left side of the room. After all, the skeleton would only attack if he attacked first... Or that was the logic with the other skeletons.

When Marcus was only a few meters away from the door, the skeleton raised his right arm, and a sphere of energy shot out of his hand.

*Bang!*

Marcus was able to react in time, managing to block the attack with his shield, but he was pushed back by the force of the impact and crashed into the wall.

'Son of a... It's a f**king skeleton mage!'Marcus was very shocked. After all, this was his first encounter with a magic user since coming to this world.

Even if it was a skeleton, just by being able to use magic, the skeleton mage was on another level compared to ordinary skeletons like Marcus.

Truth be told, the situation didn't look good.

Marcus had managed to block the attack, but still lost 5 HP points, and the shield had been almost destroyed.

Moreover, Marcus still had the weakness of [Magic Damage], if he happened to receive a direct hit from that energy projectile, he was done for.

*Bang!... Boom!*

The skeleton mage raised his arm again and aimed at where Marcus was.

Marcus took off his shield and threw it at the skeleton mage, but it was destroyed when it hit the energy projectile. Without wasting another second, Marcus stood up and started running around the room while dodging the skeleton mage's energy attacks.

*Bang!..Bang!..Bang!..Bang!*

....

{Conditions have been met.}

....

{The effect of the title [Light-footed coward] has been activated.}

....

'Nice timing, system!' Marcus smiled inwardly.

At that moment, the effect of the title [Light-footed Coward] activated and Marcus' agility went from 10(+5) to 30(+5) and he was now as fast as an Olympic athlete.

'If I try to escape the way I came I might get hit in the back. I can't attack either because his projectiles are so fast.'

With his options so limited, the only plan Marcus could come up with was to evade the skeleton mage's attacks until he ran out of MP. It wasn't the best plan but at least it was something.

Fortunately, Marcus had unlimited stamina.

*Bang!..Bang!..Bang!..Bang!*

Several minutes passed and in that time the skeleton mage had launched more than 90 energy projectiles. As a result, the walls of the room were full of cracks, holes, and gaps.

Marcus sensed that it wouldn't be long until the skeleton would run out of MP, he just had to hold on a little longer.

....

{An error has been detected in the system.}

....

{The effect of the title [Light-footed coward] has been disabled.}

....

'What?!!'

But at that moment, Marcus' title ceased to have any effect and he was hit by a shockwave caused by an energy projectile and fell to the ground.

Originally Marcus' title only activated when running away from an enemy, but he had been running around the room avoiding the skeleton mage's attacks.

Although the title effect was activated at first, it was because of a bug. When the system detected that Marcus wasn't really running away and was just running in circles, the ability was canceled.

*Bang!... boom!*

Marcus rolled on the ground avoiding another energy projectile, stood up, unsheathed his sword, and charged towards the skeleton mage.

Marcus was aware that, without the effects of the title, it would be impossible for him to dodge another attack, and he only had 13 HP left. So he decided to risk everything in a last desperate attack. It was all or nothing.

*Bang!*

The skeleton mage raised his hand and fired again. The projectile shattered Marcus' left arm and almost made him fall. But he hit the ground with all the power his 9 points of strength could give him and managed to get a few centimeters away from the skeleton image.

*SLASH!*

The sword made a diagonal cut damaging the skeleton's rib cage and knocking him to the ground in the process. Marcus lunged at the skeleton mage and began punching him in the skull with all his might.

*CRACK! SNAP! CRACK!*

With each blow Marcus delivered, the skeleton mage's skull cracked more and more. Until finally, it cracked into pieces and stopped moving.

Marcus was mentally exhausted, so after defeating the skeleton mage he lay down on the ground.

'Haaaa... I think I'm having deja vu.'

The scene reminded Marcus of the day he arrived in this world and had his first fight with a common skeleton. Although it had only been a little over a month, to Marcus it felt like years had passed.

'Looks like I'm not so useless after all. But I guess this is game over for me.'

Marcus' HP was at 5, he had almost every bone cracked or fractured and was missing an arm. He clearly couldn't fight again.

But he didn't care anymore, after all, he never had much of a chance of surviving. But at least he had finally been able to overcome his limits and defeat an enemy much stronger than he was.

Seconds later, the system flooded him with messages.